The first-of-its-kind Villains Grove haunted walk-through experience will be part of Disney’s up-charge Halloween event running on select nights from Sept. 17 through Oct. 31 at the Anaheim theme park.

The new Villains Grove coming to the Oogie Boogie Bash at Disney California Adventure will be unlike any other haunted experience you’ve ever seen at any theme park.

“There’s usually a precedent to follow and someone that’s come before you and blazed that trail,” said Disney Parks Live Entertainment show director Jordan Peterson. “This has been a brand new trail that has never been blazed before. We’re experiencing the joy and sometimes the heartache of it all. But it’s been fun to build together with a great team.”

The first-of-its-kind Villains Grove haunted walk-through experience will be part of Disney’s up-charge Halloween event running on select nights from Sept. 17 through Oct. 31 at the Anaheim theme park.

“It’s never been done, which was part of the excitement and a big part of the challenge,” Peterson said in a phone interview. “A lot of times you don’t know what you don’t know until you start experiencing it.”

Peterson expects Villains Grove to evolve throughout Oogie Boogie Bash as Disney’s live entertainment team tweaks and adjusts the lighting and sound effects along the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail.

The self-guided tour through the atmospheric forest is designed to be Instagram friendly and deeply immersive.

“It will be visually stunning,” Peterson said. “The time in the attraction will vary based on the mood and what you’re wanting to experience.”

Visitors will follow a path through the wooded Redwood Creek Challenge Trail and pass through sections of the forest influenced by the essence and echoes of Disney villains.

“You’ll feel their presence in the sound, the lighting and in some cases the smell,” Peterson said.

There will be no physical characters and few physical sets in the forest — only the suggestion of the recent presence of Maleficent, Scar, Dr. Facilier and other Disney villains. Villains Grove turns the canopy of trees along the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail into a canvas painted with lighting effects. A custom orchestral score will amplify the villainous mood and atmosphere in the dark and secluded forest. Scent effects will help suggest a foreboding sense of place.

The backstory for the haunted attraction finds Oogie Boogie, the host of the Disney Halloween event, opening a portal along the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail and summoning the Disney villains from their worlds. The unleashed evil bends the trees in the forest into the shapes of the villains, leaving behind a wicked echo of their malevolent presence.

“The trees will be dramatically uplit creating a canopy above you that feels like the essence of the villain,” Peterson said. “Like he was there, but he’s no longer physically there. His essence remains. His echo.”

Visitors will enter the opened portal through a swirling vortex of light.

The first section in Villains Grove will suggest the recent presence of Judge Claude Frollo from “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” Physical candelabras will line the path. Stained glass light will paint the trees. Chanting monks can be heard in the woods. The smell of incense will fill the air.

In another section, cello music will play as you approach a waterfall, suggesting Maleficent’s recent presence.

“You’ll see that Maleficent’s vines are starting to grow up the waterfall,” Peterson said. “They’re starting to crack the rock and split it open. You’ll see green light pouring out of the rock and what looks like smoke disappearing. You’ll see the shadows of her crows and ravens flying across.”

The path leads visitors who follow signs “This Way” and “That Way” down a rabbit hole into a nightmarish wonderland.

“You’re going to see these beautiful roses of light that will paint themselves from red to white dancing along with the music as you walk through the Queen of Hearts garden,” Peterson said.

Deeper inside the Villains Grove visitors will feel like they’ve stepped into Scar’s cave and stumbled upon the elephants’ graveyard from “The Lion King.” A driving drum track will rumble through the jungle. Green and yellow lights will paint the trees. Geysers will shoot steams in the air. Hyena tracks will appear on rocks.

Further along the trail, cool neon lights will suggest the presence of Dr. Facilier from “Princess and the Frog” and his friends from the other side.

“We’ll kind of guide your feet quite literally as the ground where you’re stepping is transformed and you’ll see the shadows kind of reaching out and playing with you on the ground at your feet through some great projection gags,” Peterson said.

The Queen from “Snow White” will summon a lightning storm in the darkest section of the forest. Arcing lightning will dance across the tops of the trees and appear to strike the ground.

Just when things get a little too intense, the caretaker wisps of the forest will lead visitors to their joyous and comforting home in the woods where 100,000 of the little points of light dance in the trees. Sharp-eyed travelers may notice the wisps along the way throughout the Villains Grove.

“They’re kind of watching you and keeping an eye on you as you journey throughout. You’ll see their influences in some unique and fun ways,” Peterson said. “They may swirl around and take some familiar shapes here and there before disappearing and darting off into the darkness.”

The wisps will guide visitors out of the “beautiful nightmare” and into the safety of a sunrise that gently wakes them from their sleep-walking trance.

Brady MacDonald is a theme park reporter for the Orange County Register and the Southern California News Group. He’s covered the theme park industry for more than 25 years. He writes about Disney, Universal, Six Flags, SeaWorld, Cedar Fair and Legoland parks in Southern California, across the United States and around the world. As a member of the SCNG Features team, he also writes about entertainment, travel, pop culture, music, restaurants and craft beer.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.